1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device to hold playing cards in position to allow them to be dealt out one at a time. In particular, it relates to a device for holding a stack of cards tilted at an angle to a support and relatively loosely captured between a sloping front barrier and a resiliently biased pusher that urges the stack toward the front barrier to allow the cards to be dealt out one at a time through a slot along the lower edge of the front barrier as a result of finger pressure applied through an opening in the front barrier to allow finger engagement with the forwardmost card.
2. Prior Art
Various forms of card holders have been proposed heretofore for supporting a stack of cards or tickets in an enclosure that has a slot through which the cards can be ejected one at a time and an opening to allow frictional engagement with the forwardmost card to eject it through the slot by sliding it laterally with respect to the stack. Such a device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 737,452 to Johnson in which the user's finger is pressed against the top card. A similar structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,482 by Russell. In both of these patents, the cards are directly vertically stacked in an enclosure to rest on a support resiliently urged against a top wall that has an opening through which pressure can be applied to the uppermost card to move it laterally through a side slot in a wall perpendicular to the plane of the cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 389,873 to Clark discloses another card dispenser in which a slide is pressed against one edge of the uppermost card held in a vertical stack in the dispenser to eject that card through a slot in a side wall perpendicular to the plane of the cards. Friedman et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,473, show a machine in which the bottom card is pushed off by a sliding feeder dog that engages the edge of the card. Both of these patents present the same possibility of undesired engagement between the cards and the edges of the pusher means. Such engagement could mar the edges of the cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 505,997 to Ward shows a tilted support for cards and resilient means to press the support and the cards resting on it against a bar that holds the cards in place. Although the cards are tilted, they are extracted one at a time by sliding them from under the bar and out into the open without having them pass through a slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,850,114 to McCaddin and U.S. Pat. No. 3,147,978 to Sjostrand show machines with friction rollers to urge the top card off a deck. The cards, in each patent, are held in vertical alignment with each card lying flat on the card below it.
Mattioli in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,339 describes a random dealing device in which a lower stack of cards is held tilted on a support and is urged against a front wall by a weight. The wall and the weight have similarly sloping surfaces that engage the surfaces of the tilted cards, and an upper, similarly tilted stack is held in place on the lower stack and supported by edge-to-edge engagement with cards in the lower stack. Friction rollers engage the forwardmost cards in both stacks through an opening in the front wall to draw cards from both stacks in random selection. The support on which the lower stack rests is sloped toward the front to allow the weight to respond to gravity in order to push the cards toward the front wall, and the support, with the cards and weight in it, is fitted into a tunnel in a pedestal that includes the rollers and means to rotate them. The pedestal also includes an outlet slot through which the randomly selected forwardmost cards emerge.